Manuel here. Getting a new batch of Oscar nominations is always overwhelming but since right now it’s all about first impressions, I figured we’d check in with the recently minted Oscar nominated scripts and see how they quite literally introduce themselves.
As most of these screenplays are cannily available online as FYCs (links here take you to the script), find below the very first line uttered in each nominated screenplay of 2015.
Think of it as a way of saying "Hello!" to these ten contenders...
Best Adapted Screenplay
Perhaps it's the inclusion of Nagy's beautiful adaptation but I kind of love this category, give or take the McKay script. Also, the doodle on The Martian's script is courtesy of Ridley Scott who sent that page out into space!
MODERN TRADER (V.O.)
In the late seventies banking was not a job you went into to make large sums of money. It was a good stable profession like selling insurance or accounting.
— The Big Short, Adam McKay, Charles Randolph
EILIS (mouthing)
Go back to bed.
— Brooklyn, Nick Hornby
eight more opening quotes after the jump...
JACK
Not much going on for a Friday.
— Carol, Phyllis Nagy
TEDDY
At around 4:30 a.m., central standard time, our satellites detected a storm approaching the Ares 2 mission site on Mars.
— The Martian, Drew Goddard
JACK (V.O.)
You cried all day and left TV on till you were a zombie. But then I zoomed down from heaven through Skylight into Room — and I was kicking you from the inside, boom boom, and then I shot out onto Rug with my eyes wide open, and you cutted the cord and said “Hello Jack.”
— Room, Emma Donoghue
Best Original Screenplay
Funny story, last time Tom McCarthy was nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category he shared his nomination with Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, for Pixar's Up. Another handsome list; together these ten films make up quite the lineup, don't they?
ABEL
Excuse me.
— Bridge of Spies, Matt Charman, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
CALEB
How long was I out?
— Ex Machina, Alex Garland
JOY (V.O.)
Do you ever look at someone and wonder, “What is going on inside their head?”
— Inside Out, Josh Cooley, Ronnie del Carmen, Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve
YOUNG COP
How’s that going?
— Spotlight, Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer
TONE
Who is it?
— Straight Outta Compton, Andrea Berloff, Jonathan Herman, S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus
Isn't it beautiful that, regardless of how they open visually, so many of them begin with a question? By far my favorite is Jack’s intro to Room which just so perfectly sets the tone for the piece. Can we dream of a scenario wherein Donoghue sweeps in and takes the gold?